Google, other tech giants lose out in Europe’s copyright revamp

The FINANCIAL -- European institutions struck a deal Wednesday on new copyright rules for the first time in almost two decades, after years of intense lobbying by European publishers, cultural industries, major tech companies and digital rights activists.

Under the final deal, U.S. technology firms will have to jump through additional legal hoops when using content such as music, videos and news stories on their sites, while record companies, publishers and groups representing artists will have new ways of ensuring they’re paid for their material. For example, Google will face new requirements for negotiating licensing agreements with publishers and removing improperly uploaded videos from YouTube.

“The agreement is not everything the Parliament wanted to achieve, nor is it everything the Council and the Commission wanted, but I think we met the thin lines everyone can agree on,” said Axel Voss, the lead negotiator for the European Parliament, after the compromise was reached between the three institutions.

A final agreement was postponed earlier Wednesday, putting in peril hopes that a deal would be found this week, but negotiators came to a compromise in the early evening — marking a turning point in a fierce lobbying thriller that kept Brussels lawmakers on edge for two-and-a-half years.

The initial proposal, presented by the Commission in September 2016, aimed to help Europe’s cultural industry face Silicon Valley’s growing power